Tag Archives: taste test

Oktoberfest Taste Test

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Me at Oktoberfest in Helen, Georgia. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

Me at Oktoberfest in Helen, Georgia. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

I know, I know. Oktoberfest is a German thing. But my birthday was Wednesday, and the themed party extended from last weekend to this weekend.

We started with a quick weekend trip to Helen, Georgia, a Southern mountain town that converted itself into an Alpine village. This marks the 45th year the hamlet has hosted its own Oktoberfest, and the wife and I never really need an excuse to party.

All over Helen, you will find German-style biergartens and restaurants. We gorged ourselves on German food, especially at the Old Bavaria Inn, which has a nice assortment of rare German beers in the bottle. We also sampled Oktoberfest beers from Erdinger, Hofbräu, Paulaner, and Warsteiner,

As I’ve mentioned, I am a big fan of Oktoberfest/Märzen beers. So to complete my birthday celebration, my wife and I planned a huge German feast and a special Oktoberfest blind taste test this weekend.

We invited a few of our best beer-drinking friends to help us out. Why do we need help you may ask? Well, we had 19 Oktoberfest beers to sample, pitting German beers against their American counterparts.

Yes, 19! Crazy, right? Here they are in all their glory.

All 19 Oktoberfest beers. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

All 19 Oktoberfest beers. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

Here’s the German list.

And here’s the USA list.

We broke the beers up into three random flights of 6, 6, and 7. I had four tasters: two hop-head women and two malt-maniac men. The Germans and Americans were mixed freely in each flight, leading up to a final five-beer heat.

The top five finalists were Ballast Point Dead Ringer, Foothills Oktoberfest, Highland Clawhammer, Leinenkugel Oktoberfest, and Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier.

And the winner was Asheville, North Carolina’s own Highland Brewing Company Clawhammer Oktoberfest!

Frankly, I was a little surprised that the Germans did not fair better. Ballast Point Dead Ringer Oktoberfest came in a close second. So congrats all around.

Now, as your trusted beer journalist and social scientist, I remained an objective observer for this experiment. However, I couldn’t help getting in on the fun. It was my birthday after all.

My wife, Rhiannon, in Helen, Georgia, for Oktoberfest. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

My wife, Rhiannon, in Helen, Georgia, for Oktoberfest. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

Bonus points; I asked my wife to run the experiment for me. My results are dubious since the beers by this time had begun to warm. I can’t vouch for my taste test at all, but here are my results anyway.

My top five were: Ballast Point, Erdinger, Foothills, Samuel Adams, and Shiner. My overall winner was Samuel Adams Oktoberfest. Again, take that one with a grain of salt.

The Great Wheat Heat

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As promised, I am bringing you a bona fide blind taste test. And this one is a BIG one.

Summer is burning its way through the States. Temperatures have been in the 90s here in the mountains of East Tennessee. That is record-breaking heat for June, and my air conditioning is out.

So what better way to beat the heat than a wheat heat? That’s right, a wheat beer blind taste test!

The 14 beers of our wheat beer taste test. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

The 14 beers of our wheat beer taste test. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

The biggest problem is what beers to include. I chose 14 beers for this one. Yes, 14 beers. I chose beers with solid reputations and easy access, and I tried to spread the love around to the countries most known for wheat beer, which are Belgium, Germany, and the United States.

The contenders were as follow:

Confession time. I have always thought Germans did better with wheat beer, or weizenbier, than Belgium or the U.S. That opinion alone probably just ruined any Belgian street cred I ever had.

But what if we removed the labels and bottles and stripped the beers down to their bubbly effervescent essence? What beer would be summer’s emperor with no clothes?

I roped my wife into conducting the research for this study as she is not fond of wheat beers. She poured two rounds of seven beers for myself and my two fellow tasters. The three of us never knew what beers we were tasting.

After the first two rounds of seven, my wife took the top rated beers in each round and had a final taste-off round. The top five were: Hoegaarden, Ayinger, Franziskaner, Allagash White, and … Blue Moon.

Well, in the final round, my top pick was Allagash White. That surprised me. I hadn’t even tried it before.

It had a touch of skunkiness. But the flavors were really nice and fruity.

My second choice was a tie between Franziskaner, one of my all-time favorite beers, and … Blue Moon.

My two fellow blind tasters chose the same favorite beer. And both chose … Blue Moon.

So the overall winner, the king of all wheat beers, the sultan of summer suds is … Blue Moon.

OK, I know what you are thinking. Blue Moon? The ubiquitous witbier from U.S. brewing giant MillerCoors? Yes, the same.

I knew before I even conducted this test that Blue Moon might be a serious contender. I also knew that if Blue Moon won, there would be critics ready to pounce.

Blue Moon has been in a bit of legal hot water over its craft beer status or lack there of. But the beer is one of the most popular in the United States. And it even gets a “very good” 87 rating from the Alström Bros of BeerAdvocate fame.

So it’s a decent beer. It really is. And now there’s evidence to back it up.

Don’t hate. Don’t be “that guy,” the beer snob. Just embrace it.

When you are at that summer party and someone offers you a Blue Moon, it’s OK. You can take it. Just come back to this post and remind yourself that science is on your side.

 

 

Blind Tastings & Bitter Beers

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I really love science, and I really love research. That’s why I was so interested in this article about a recent blind taste test in a San Francisco bottle shop. The event featured India Pale Ales and Double India Pale Ales, the seemingly ubiquitous, lip-curling, hoppy, bitter brews.

One of the selections in the taste test, Pliny the Elder from Russian River, is considered to be one of the be best, if not the best, Double IPA on earth. But it rarely wins these blind taste tests. You know, the kind where no one can see the bottle. This time it did though. The authors suggest it could be chance or could be that people are no longer looking for the wildest, bitterest beer to call the best. Pliny is not over the top with hop.

OK, so it’s not science. Not exactly. But it isn’t that far removed. And it’s still noteworthy.

Part of the reason why I’m interested in any of this, especially since it has nothing to do with Belgian beer, is because I do not like bitter beer. I just don’t. And I’m not alone, as another recent article from Slate points out.

PlinyHeady

Pliny the Elder and Heady Topper. Gifts for my wife on our first anniversary. Copyright 2013 by Andrew Dunn.

But many people I know and love do love IPAs, especially my wife. I bought her two of the top IPAs in the world, Pliny the Elder and the Alchemist Brewery‘s Heady Topper, for our first anniversary.

I could take or leave either, which is a pretty good review from me. But neither beer blew my wife away. At the time, almost three years ago, she really loved the bitterest of brews. So if I could drink them and she’s wasn’t blown away, they’re probably not too bitter.

I personally think the super bitter beer craze is just that, a craze. A phase that will pass. Perhaps the results of this recent blind taste test is confirming my theory. It certainly mirrors some of my own “research” in the name of beer drinking science.

I love conducting blind taste tests. Now, admittedly, they come with their own problems. Remember the old Pepsi Challenge? People liked Pepsi better than Coke, if it was just a sip, because it was sweeter. But a whole drink? Coke always seems to dominate.

However, if you give people a little more time and a little more to drink, a blind taste test can be a reasonable way to decide burning important questions, such as “Which beer do I like best?”

QuadTasteTest

The quad taste test. From the left, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Rochefort 10, Chimay Blue, and Westvleteren 12. Copyright 2013 by Andrew Dunn.

My wife and I have conducted three blind taste tests. And we have plans to do another one very soon. The first we conducted was to figure out which Belgian quadruple beer I liked best.

My choices were Chimay Blue, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Rochefort 10, and the extremely expensive and extremely elusive Westvleteren 12. I had my wife set up four tasting glasses without telling me where she put which beer. I drank the first round, each with a few sips, one at a time and told her my thoughts. We did it again, and she switched the order on me at my request. In both cases, Rochefort 10 came out on top. It wasn’t the super expensive beer that everyone wants so badly. Hmm.

Later, we did the same kind of test for my her. She really likes IPAs, but is always waffling over which she likes best. We wanted to know which IPA readily available in our local stores did she like best. This time we had six IPAs and one Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

While New Belgium‘s Ranger IPA was her favorite IPA of the mix, beating out her favorite going into the blind taste test, Dogfish Head‘s 60-Minute IPA, she actually preferred the Sierra Nevada more. I predicted this. I know she really likes it. But I had a feeling she had lost a little love for IPAs in general. So the least hoppy beer won out in the end.

IPATastTest

The IPA (and Sierra Nevada Pale) taste test for my wife. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

We conducted our most recent blind taste test, hard apple ciders, this winter with friends. I purchased 10 brands of hard cider. And we did two five-drink rounds. Then we did a final round pitting the top three. We only used straight hard apple ciders. No other flavors allowed. Strongbow came out on top for all but one of the six tasters.

What does that mean? I have no idea. But it was a lot of fun to do. So you should try your own.

If you can’t figure out if this expensive beer is worth the hype or you can’t figure out which bitter bomb IPA you like better, try a blind taste test. You might surprise yourself.

I plan on conducting my quad taste test again with a Rochefort 10, an aged bottle of Westvleteren 12, and an Achel Extra Bruin. It’s all in the name of science, of course.

😉